I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1401 Financial Center
Joseph continued along this line of thought.

A "health testing department under a medical laboratory" could be established, with unified pricing, using the latest technology to conduct physical examinations for the nobility, and could also add a series of subsequent drug and equipment treatments, as well as value-added services such as health tracking and maintenance.

He immediately shook his head; the name was difficult to pronounce and remember, and it lacked any appeal.

Hmm, let's call it "Royal Sanatorium".

The location also couldn't be a remote little place like Montreuil—surrounded by dilapidated countryside, which seemed disproportionate to the expensive inspection service fees.

But the laboratory cannot be built in the city of Paris, so where would be a suitable location?

After a moment's thought, Joseph quickly identified the best location as Fontainebleau Palace.

This is a royal holiday palace located 55 kilometers southeast of Paris. Construction began with Louis VI, and the buildings and gardens cover an area of ​​over 100 hectares.

When Louis XVI was young, he would occasionally come here to relax for a few days, but later, due to France's financial difficulties, he basically sealed it off.

The area boasts a beautiful environment and the palace has over a thousand rooms, making it ideal for development into a luxury sanatorium.

In addition, there is plenty of vacant land nearby, and it is connected to Paris by the Royal Avenue, so there is even potential for real estate development in the future.

Thinking of this, he smiled and looked at Lemonnier: "Mr. Lemonnier, perhaps you could go to Fontainebleau to 'vacation' and conduct your experiments at the same time."

"what?"

"From now on, all the medical laboratories will be moved to the south side of Fontainebleau Palace. I will assign someone to handle those 'enthusiastic' nobles. Of course, you can also bring some students to do this; I guarantee the compensation will be very generous."

He explained the concept of a "health checkup center" to the doctor and instructed him to make preparations. Emmanuel, however, became even more anxious and whispered a reminder: "Your Highness, moving to a place as far away as Fontainebleau might cost 20 francs..."

Joseph winked at his loyal butler and said in an even softer voice, "Don't worry, a checkup will cost at least 800 francs."

Emmanuel's eyes widened immediately, and he silently retreated to the doorway.

Even if we calculate based on a one-third profit margin, we only need to receive seven or eight hundred people to "break even".

Little did he know that the inspection was actually the least profitable part of the process.

If a health problem is found, the treatment and medication costs can easily amount to several thousand francs.

Even if no problems are found, you can still breathe some fresh air at Fontainebleau Palace, do some health and wellness treatments, and buy some health supplements.

The cost of accommodation, service fees, and health supplements can easily amount to several thousand francs.

It's important to understand that a medical check-up isn't something you do only once. For those who can afford it, getting a check-up annually is the responsible thing to do for their health.

Especially in a place like Versailles where people like to compete, Noble A only visits the Fontainebleau Sanatorium once every two years, while Noble B, who only visits once every six months, is too embarrassed to even greet him.

Once the sanatorium becomes popular, they can build a ring of holiday villas around it, and selling just a dozen or so will recoup the more than one million francs invested in the medical laboratory.

After Dr. Lemonnier took his leave, Joseph resumed his discussion with the two ministers about the location of the European Settlement Bank.

He had just started when he suddenly remembered the medical laboratories that were also "unable to establish themselves" in Paris, and his eyes lit up.

The settlement bank could easily follow the model of the Royal Sanatorium. Who says a settlement bank has to be located in Paris?

Paris is already overcrowded, and as the settlement bank is the settlement center of Europe, people from all over the world will inevitably come to conduct business here, putting even more pressure on Paris.

It would be better to place the settlement bank in another province, which would bring more people to the local area and boost the economy.

Just as Joseph was about to express his idea, a sudden inspiration struck him.

Sigh, this isn't a big enough strategy! Why limit ourselves to just a settlement bank? We could easily relocate the Paris Stock Exchange, the agricultural futures market, and even the French Reserve Bank to a single city, making it France's financial center.

As France's only political, economic, and cultural center, Paris has absorbed a massive amount of resources from the entire country, but its development has become increasingly slow. The excessive concentration of a large population makes the city extremely bloated, leading to a rapid increase in the costs of living, transportation, land, and raw materials.

Investing ten units of resources in Paris now might only yield three units of output.

But both the government and investors can only continuously pour resources into Paris, because a large number of national functions are located there and cannot be replaced.

If financial functions could be relocated to other cities, it would bring with it a massive amount of resources. Within a few years, or at most a decade, a new core area could emerge, whose output efficiency would certainly be several times higher than that of Paris!
Joseph then thought that perhaps this opportunity could be used to solve France's "unipolar imbalance" problem.

Due to various historical reasons, France has become overly reliant on the Greater Paris region, to the point that the French generally agree that "France has only two departments – Paris and the rest."

This has not only made it difficult for areas outside Paris to develop, but the over-concentration of state functions has also brought enormous risks.

Historically, whenever something goes wrong in Paris, the whole country inevitably suffers catastrophic consequences.

When facing foreign enemies, if Paris falls, France will immediately lose all its fighting capacity.

In addition, many industries that are not actually suitable for Paris have had to be built around Paris due to financing or market issues.

These are all extremely detrimental to national development.

As for where would be a suitable new financial center?
Joseph quickly narrowed it down to several cities—Marseille, Lille, Collomb, and Bordeaux.

Cologne was the first to be ruled out. After all, it's too close to the Rhine River; in the event of war, the country's financial center would be on the front lines, which is too risky.

Bordeaux, being located deep inland, had limited development potential and was subsequently rejected.

The remaining two locations, Lille and Calais, can radiate to the middle and lower Rhine regions from Brussels to the Palatinate, thus influencing nearly half of Germany.

Marseille was a hub for Mediterranean trade, radiating influence to Italy, North Africa, Spain, and even the Ottoman region.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

But Joseph immediately realized that Calais faced the English Channel and, at least for now, was still threatened by the British fleet.

The Mediterranean Sea has now become almost an inland sea of ​​France, making it far safer than Lille.

Furthermore, although the market and trade volume around the Mediterranean were temporarily lower than in the north—the north faced European countries such as Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, whose economic size was far beyond that of Italy and the Ottoman Empire—Joseph knew that once the Suez Canal opened, the situation would undergo a dramatic change.

　There will be more tonight.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)